Fracking company Cuadrilla is not required to seal the UK’s only two shale gas wells at the end of June, as previously ordered by regulators.
Regulators have lifted an order for the controversial wells near Blackpool to be concreted.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been pressured by Conservative MPs to end a 2019 moratorium on fracking.
The move comes ahead of the release of the government’s delayed energy strategy.
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) said the company now has until the end of June 2023 to review options for the Preston New Road and Elswick sites.
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Francis Egan, CEO of Cuadrilla said: “I would like to thank the Prime Minister and the Business Secretary [Grant Shapps] for seeing the light and realizing – just in time – how absurd it would have been to force us, in the middle of an energy crisis, to pour concrete into Britain’s only two viable shale gas wells.
He added that the suspension “will have an ending in an impasse unless we now lift the moratorium preventing us from using the wells.”
The NSTA said Cuadrilla applied for permission to keep its wells on March 28 and it approved it just three days later.
“The North Sea Transition Authority has carefully reviewed this application alongside recent developments and has agreed to withdraw the well closure requirement by the end of June,” the regulator said.
“Cuadrilla now has until the end of June next year to review options for the Preston New Road and Elswick sites.
“If credible reuse plans are not in place by then, the North Sea Transition Authority expects to re-impose decommissioning requirements.”
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